A Eastern Timber Rattlesnake I found blocking my path on the Greenbrier River Trail near mile post 68 - 8/13/06

Click on photo to enlarge

Most interesting thing about the snake, besides the fact it refused to move, was that it's rattle didn't sound like what I
was expecting. It wasn't a rattle at all. It was more like the buzz from a electric razor.
After I finally persuaded it to move off the trail I used the camera to create a short .mov file with the sound of the rattle.
Click here to play the "Snake On A Trail" movie. It's 1.8M.
You may have to turn up your speakers.
UPDATE: Since I first posted this I have been told by a farmer friend that the rattle sound depends on how wet
the weather has been. If the weather has been wet, it's a buzz. After a long dry spell the rattler's tail dries out and the sound
becomes like the classic movie rattle.
UPDATE 2: David Strahin told me that when we was a young man he was once picking blueberries early in the morning at Dolly Sods.
The blueberry bushes are low to the ground and while picking from them a rattlesnake, without warning, bit him on the hand.
He claimed that since the snake was wet with the morning dew it's rattle made no sound at all. Dave survived the encounter and he was in
his 80's when he told me this story but the scar from the bite is still plainly visible on his hand.

If that wasn't enough, a couple more miles up the trail I see a bear in the river. He started running
as soon as I came into view. With him running and me trying to get a picture it looked like that old Bigfoot film.
He is in the center of this picture at the edge of the woods.